


Partners

by iwantthemtostay



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-29
Packaged: 2019-04-07 15:33:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14084019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iwantthemtostay/pseuds/iwantthemtostay
Summary: Five years after retiring post-Sochi Tessa and Scott are still struggling with platonic partnership, and things just get more complicated when Tessa leaves her job as a lawyer to coach a rival ice dance team to Scott's protégés.*Originally posted on livejournal Summer 2014*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote this in 2014 I guess it was future fic, but now it's AU? 
> 
> I'm on tumblr under the same name, and am working on a prompt I received!

**_May 2019_ **

 "You could be a partner in a few years' time."

Tessa had been confused when her boss had told her this when the deposition had finished before lunch. She was a partner. She was Scott's partner. Then she realised that he was referring to in his law firm rather than on the ice. Then she spent lunch in the bathroom crying because she wasn't really Scott's partner anymore apart from shows and those were few and far between now with her work schedule and the only female partner in the firm was single and childless and she didn't want to be like that but the only other option seemed to be marrying a male partner and never advancing anywhere or staying at home with the kids and she didn't want that either and sometimes she wasn't even sure she even wanted to be a lawyer because she had spent the morning grilling a woman about whether she had been using her medication correctly, the medication which appeared to have left her with a constant pain in her legs, and what kind of a person did that and... She takes a breath. Does it count as billable hours if you spend it worrying about whether the pharmaceutical company you are representing are crooks?

She tries to focus on the documents in front of her, but all she can think about is the fact that she's turning thirty this weekend and she's questioning all the choices she's made. She's going to have to go to the surprise party she knows her parents are throwing and act like everything's great and she loves her life. She's going to have to answer all her dad's lawyer friends' questions about what it's like to practise in 'the big city'. She's going to have to act like she's not a little bit jealous of her best friend who is so offensively happy with her husband and her baby on the way, and try to make it seem like she doesn't agree that the best response to an Olympic silver medal is to marry your partner and get pregnant. Scott. She's going to have to listen to him talk about coaching and stop herself from asking why he didn't ask her to coach with him. She's going to have to listen to him rave about his junior team and stop herself from saying that she doesn't think all that much of the girl. There's just something about her, maybe it's because she's blonde. Tessa has developed a suspicion towards blondes apart from Kaitlyn, Joannie, and the friendly girl who works at the coffee place across from her office. Most importantly of all she's going to have to avoid getting drunk and re-enacting that 'Pick me, choose me, love me' scene from _Grey's Anatomy _while his obnoxiously nice girlfriend looks on. She's a teacher and they met when he visited her class at school which Tessa would find adorable if it had happened to anyone else. She's hard to hate apart from her inability to correctly use an apostrophe which is definitely a hate-worthy offence plus is worrisome for Canada's education system. She's blonde and it's weird. All his other girlfriends had been brunettes and Tessa's best friend from her psychology days had believed it was because they looked like her. Said friend had recently been struck off for sleeping with a client though so her judgement may have been less than sound. Then again, she's getting married and seems really happy.__

 

 

Tessa is jolted out of her reverie by the sound of the phone.

"Hi Tessa, there's a Russian lady here to see you."

She rolls her eyes. She's going to have to tell Marina to stop sending her friends with visa troubles to her.

"Her name's Tatiana Dementieva."

Tessa nearly spits out her coffee. "Send her in to me, thank you."

Why is the greatest technical ice dance coach of just about all time coming to see her? She knows that Dementieva has been in Canada for the past few years, she trains the National Junior Champions, so she presumes she doesn't have any immigration issues. The last time Tessa spoke to her was in Sochi when the Russian had found her after the free dance and congratulated her on winning her second gold medal. Tessa had worried that the woman was experiencing some kind of dementia until she continued on to say that sometimes the greatest teams do not get all that they deserve and Tessa had realised what she meant.

"It has been too long," she says simply as she kisses Tessa's cheek on entering the cramped office. She looks somewhat older but as sharp as ever.

"Madame Dementieva," that's how Marina had always referred to her so she thinks it's the way to go, "it's such..."

She waves her hand to stop her. "It's Tanya. Now, I have a proposition for you so please let an old woman talk."

Tessa just nods and hopes none of her actual clients decide to pop in while someone talks skating at her.

"I have been coaching for a long time. Back in Russia I was always in the background, taking care of the technique while other people did choreography. I came to Canada to retire and spend time with my daughter and grandchildren, but that got a bit boring. I missed the ice." She looks at Tessa like she's daring her. "I took over ice dancing programme at a rink here in Toronto and I have some very good teams, one who could be as good as you and Scott. But now I am getting older and I need more help."

At this point Tessa can't help but pipe up, "Scott is a great coach!" She gets a look that tells her it's not her turn to speak.

"Yes, he is very promising, his teams are technically sound, as good as most not coached by me, but he is not what I am looking for. I need someone who can take over the care of my little babies and mother them. I need someone who can help my girls as they grow up. Most of all I need someone artistic who can choreograph. Sophie and Jack have the potential to win Junior Worlds next year, but they won't do it with my choreography. I am not creative enough and it is harder when they are sister and brother because easy ideas are inappropriate. I need a partner and I want you."

"Me?! I have hardly any experience. I, I'm a lawyer now."

"You have choreographed some very nice pieces, I've been watching. I know you have all your qualifications. And a lawyer? Is that what you want, to be stuck in an office all day and sometimes go to court where you argue with people?"

She doesn't know what to say. Her job is basically to talk and she has no idea what to tell this woman.

"Come to the rink tomorrow morning. Meet Sophie and Jack. Think about it."

 

She wasn't going to. Early mornings are the thing she misses least about skating full-time, but here she is walking through the doors of a rink at 5am. It's the smell that hits her. There's a hopeful scent to the ice at this time, like today might be the day you don't mess up your twizzles or you finally get the hang of that new lift. It's a smell that remind her of Scott pushing the hair out of her eyes and holding her up as she tried to remain awake. They don't notice her as they whizz around like they're unstoppable and Madame Dementieva (she doesn't actually have to call her by her first name, does she?) gives instructions from the boards. They have the best knee bend of any junior team Tessa has ever seen. Their lifts are simple but immaculate, Jack protects his younger sister although she seems more than capable of taking care of herself. They trust each other completely. She sees that he isn't as natural a dancer as she is, but that is nothing that can't be dealt with. In fairness, she has seen few skaters who dance as well as Sophie does. Madame Dementieva wasn't exaggerating, they could be as good or better than she and Scott were. She looks at them and sees a future.

"They could improve their extension," she remarks to the Russian when she joins her at the boards.

"When can you start?" she replies calmly as if this whole idea was never in doubt.

She hands in her notice that day.

 

"Is your partner here with you?"

Scott stares at one of Tessa's dad's lawyer friends, obviously she's here, it's her birthday party. Did he not just see the part where she pretended to be surprised when she walked into the room? (She had pulled it off pretty well) It takes him too long to realise that the man isn't talking about Tessa, he's talking about Scott's girlfriend. He smiles weakly and points to where Heather is talking about children's self-worth with Tessa's psychology friends. They seemed welcoming although he's pretty sure one of them muttered "But she's blonde..." when he introduced Heather to them. He thinks that's the one who lost her job for starting a relationship with a client though, so who knows what's going on in her head. Scott nods politely while the lawyers discuss their cases and golf. He searches the room for Tessa and finds her talking animatedly to Kaitlyn and Andrew. She looks happier than he's seen her in ages, lighter somehow. It might be that happiness is catching, those two are nauseatingly content, though he supposes that if his reaction to winning silver at the Olympics had involved marrying his partner he'd be pretty delighted with himself too. He shuffles his feet, he probably shouldn't think like that while he's seeing someone else.

All of a sudden she's beside him and he lifts her up and twirls her around. "Happy birthday, kiddo. You're nearly catching up with me."

She laughs and he thinks he doesn't get to hear that sound enough now, "I could never be that ancient."

He puts his hands to his heart, "You're hurting my feelings."

"I'm sure you can think of a way I could make it up to you," she teases and then there's that awkward silence that they're all too familiar with. The one which occurs when one of them says something you shouldn't say to someone who is seeing someone else, something that is just that bit too flirtatious, something that questions the idea of their platonic partnership. He thinks they might have a screwed up notion of what platonic means.

He breaks the silence. "You are ridiculously happy, you know that?"

"I like being thirty, it's a new beginning," she beams. She takes his arm and leads him outside, "I have some news."

He takes off his jacket so that she can sit on her parent's garden furniture which probably counts as antique by now, it's been here for as long as he can remember, without dirtying her dress. "Did you finally put that fancy law degree to good use and sue the ISU for all those medals they didn't give us?"

She gives him a look but it's not as if there's anyone around who would be offended by the question. "I quit my job."

He can't help but grin, he knows that she hasn't been happy. "Good for you. Are you going to fulfil your calling and Marina's plan and become a full-time immigration lawyer now?"

"No, I might keep that up as a side project, but I have left the law."

"You fought the law and the law won?"

She pokes him. "I left so I think I won."

"What's next for the great Tessa Virtue?"

"Coaching and choreography," she states proudly. He takes a breath, could this mean? "Tatiana Dementieva came to see me and offer me a job and at first I thought she was crazy, but then I went to see the kids she coaches and I couldn't say no. They could be spectacular. Her junior team, the Vaughns..." She looks down and start playing with her hair as if she's just realised the potential difficulties of all of this.

"I know how good they are, they destroyed Amy and Mark at Junior Nats last year." he says hotly. "Tess, if you wanted to coach why didn't you come to me?"

She looks up at him sadly, "You never asked."

Well of course he never asked! She was going off to be a lawyer, to do fancy Tessa things in the big city, he wasn't going to hold her back.

"Maybe I should have," he tells her finally. "Sometimes I don't say all the thing I should to you," he adds slowly.

"I know, me too," she nearly whispers as she takes his hand in hers. "We're going to be okay, aren't we?"

"Of course we are, a bit of rivalry will do us good. It will be like all those times we tried to out twizzle each other."

"You'll still be my partner," she promises, "even when my team kicks your ass."

"You'll still be mine, even when my kids are laughing down at yours from the top of the podium."

She rolls her eyes at him. "Dance with me, Scotty?"

He waltzes her around her parents' garden and looking into the room where the rest of the party is going on he sees his girlfriend boring his mother, Kaitlyn swapping pregnancy tips with Tessa's sister-in-law and Andrew gushing to Chiddy and Joannie who both look vaguely ill. He remembers the last time Tessa had asked him to dance with her on her birthday. She was 21 and he had told her that she was too drunk, but she had very seriously informed him that she wasn't going to have another big party until she turned 30 so she had to make the most of this one. Back then he probably wouldn't have believed that he would be taking a blonde to that party. He would have found it more likely that they would be like Kaitlyn and Andrew, making people ill with their adorableness. He holds her closer. This, Tessa in his arms, has always been the easy part. Talking to her, especially recently, not so much. They can talk for hours but they never seem to say what they really need to. He can't count the times he's told her he loves her, but never in a way that makes her understand. She's always so careful in what she says, like if she lets it all out everything could fall apart. He doesn't think her new job is going to make things easier, and he's not entirely sure that everything between them will be okay. But right now they're together, dancing.


	2. Chapter 2

_**November 2019** _

"Sometimes I think that if I hear that _Harry Potter_ music one more time I will have to get my father's gun from when he fought the Germans and shoot someone," Tanya drawls as they watch Sophie and Jack run through their free dance. "My grandson put on the DVD last night and I poured myself some vodka."

"I think that might be the most stereotypically Russian thing you've ever said," Tessa laughs.

"I can do better," she promises.

Tessa is glad that she still likes the music at least, the season is far from over. They are heading to the Grand Prix final in a few days and are polishing up the free dance. She is happy with her music choice, it's charming without being in any way romantic and has a nice variation of light and shade which gives her charges a chance to show off their range. They hit their final position perfectly and head over to the boards.

"You will not shame the Virtue-Dementieva school of ice dance," Tanya pronounces grandly.

"You hit all the accents beautifully," Tessa smiles at them warmly, "we need to work on that first lift again, but that can wait until tomorrow."

They both look a bit glum at the mention of the lift, lifts have never been their strong point and with Sophie's body changing things are only getting harder. Their height difference is getting precariously small although Tessa isn't overly worried yet, it's not like Scott was that much taller than her and that worked out fine. Sophie nearly falls over her feet on leaving the ice but her brother catches her just in time.

He pulls her braid, "You're safer on the ice."

"Walking is harder than dancing or skating," she huffs.

"Definitely," Tessa has to agree with her.

"Are Amy and Mark getting the same flight out as us?" Sophie asks quietly.

"No, they're flying out a day earlier." She and Scott had failed to co-ordinate flights, probably because they studiously avoided discussing their teams. "Any particular reason you want to know?"

"I don't really want to spend any more time with Amy than I have to. She tweeted something about girls who were too tall and too heavy for their partners and I think it was about me."

Tessa reaches for her arm as Sophie looks down at the ground. "You know that that's not true. You are perfect. She probably wasn't talking about you, maybe she was looking at old Youtube clips before the sport changed."

"That bitch," Tanya snorts.

"You told me I couldn't say that word, that it was disrespectful!" Jack exclaims.

"You can't but I am old and can say what I like." She takes Sophie's face gently in her hand. "She is just jealous that you are growing into a beautiful young woman while she got off the puberty train with her chest still flat as a blini."

Jack shrugs, "I still think she's hot."

Tessa is unimpressed with the turn the conversation has taken. "Looks are not what is important."

"Exactly, I am much happier about the fact that you can hit positions in lifts which don't make me want to take my eyes out with a blade," Tanya nods sagely.

Tessa sighs, "I was thinking more about the way that you are kind and dedicated."

Sophie giggles, "It's probably for the best that I don't make anyone want to self-mutilate either."

"That's a positive too."

They watch Sophie and Jack head off to the changing rooms.

"You're naive if you think that wasn't some kind of gamesmanship," Tanya says.

"Oh I know it was, I always knew there was something about that girl."

"Blonde. My husband nearly married a blonde you know, but I stepped in before he did anything stupid," Tanya is looking at her very intently.

"Oh really?" she asks drily. "How did you go about doing that?"

"I showed him what he would have been missing," with a dramatic flourish she leaves.

 

Sometimes Scott thinks he might actually be some kind of genius and no one ever noticed at school because he was never there for long enough, or maybe his genius was just specifically ice dance related. He feels pretty smug as he watches Amy and Mark rehearse their jazzy free dance, it shows off their speed and strength and there's no need for them to act in any way lovey-dovey, which is good because they're terrible at it. Just before they enter their final lift he's thinking they could actually win this until he sees the Vaughns enter the rink and he remembers the hours he's spent watching their competition videos. Sophie casually skates on to the ice as if she owns the place and her brother follows somewhat sheepishly. Mark drops Amy who gets up unharmed and shakes her head at him. All four converge on centre ice as if in preparation for a gang turf war.

"You should have been off the ice five minutes ago," he turns to find Tessa smiling at him. He hugs her, quickly though because he's afraid Amy might hurt him for fraternising with the enemy.

"You should have been here five minutes ago," he grins back (see, they can do this, it doesn't have to be weird).

"We may have got a bit lost on the way."

"You forgot the way to the rink where we won our last world championship? Does the time we spent together mean that little to you?"

"Nice has changed! It's been seven years!" He's missed her exasperated voice.

"We're getting really old." She laughs and they turn to look at their students. Amy has that crazed serial killer look in her eyes that she gets sometimes and Mark has positioned himself in between her and the Vaughns, although Scott doesn't know whether that's for her protection or theirs. Sophie is definitely channelling the imperious Tessa Virtue look while Jack looks like he'd really prefer to be skating.

"Team Canada are just so united," Tessa remarks with a touch of sadness. He pats her arm and calls to tell his idiot skaters to get off the ice.

"Of all the possible times to pick as your first time to drop me you choose in front of THEM! If you do that in the competition I will sneak into you room afterwards and murder you in your sleep." Amy makes him look uncompetitive.

"Then you'd have no partner," Mark says calmly.

"I could get a new one!" She slams the door to the changing room before re-opening it and smiling at them sweetly, "I might miss you though."

"Girls," Mark shakes his head and Scott claps him on the back in solidarity. "Sophie Vaughn was sweet and like twelve, and now she's... not. She just quoted Machiavelli at us."

"That's pretty intense," Scott chuckles, he remembers Marina making them read _The Prince_ in the run-up to Vancouver.

"I had just said I would twizzle into her if she ever went on the ice when we were practising again though," Mark runs a hand awkwardly through his hair as if he's only just realised that maybe you shouldn't threaten sixteen year olds with bodily harm.

Scott just raises his eyebrows at him.

"They're just infuriatingly perfect and I really want to win this time!" He's seventeen but he looks about seven now.

 

They don't win this time. They skate well but the Vaughns skate better. Tessa does a little dance when they get their gold medals and at first he thinks it's adorable, but then he considers what she's celebrating and what it means for him, what it means for them.

 

Tessa stifles a yawn and decides that she should probably go to bed before she falls asleep on the table. She barely slept last night as visions of every way that first lift could go wrong danced in her head (there are at least sixteen). She makes her goodbyes to the other coaches and looks around to check on how Sophie and Jack are enjoying the gala. Jack is nowhere to be seen, but he's eighteen and she's sure he can fend for himself. She's more worried about the fact that she can't see Sophie until finally she notices her curled up in the corner of the room having what looks like a serious bonding moment with two of her ice dance competitors. She and the tall Russian girl who won bronze appear to be consoling the American who messed up her twizzles and finished last. Tessa thinks it's best to leave them at it and exits the ballroom managing to successfully avoid the eyes of the newly crowned Grand Prix champion who hadn't let the fact that he was supposedly dating his partner stop him staring at her all night. The doors of the elevator are just about to close and take her up to her room when they re-open and Scott enters holding two bottles of champagne.

"We're going to a private party," he presses the button for the top floor.

"In the penthouse?" Does he know people she doesn't?

"Somewhere much more exclusive," he winks at her and she suddenly doesn't feel so tired. She should probably ask him why he seems to have been avoiding her since the medal ceremony, but they're together now and she doesn't want to ruin anything.

They get out of the elevator and he leads her up a tiny staircase which takes them to the roof of the hotel.

"We spent the night we won in Nice in the park looking at the stars, but they have a supermarket there now so this was the best I could do."

"Everything changes," she says softly, she turns around to find him struggling to open the first champagne bottle. Then, there is a pop which seems to explode into the night sky while the shimmery liquid overflows.

He presents it to her with a bow, "Don't say I never gave you anything."

She snorts, "Very smooth. Is this how you get all the girls?"

"Only the special ones."

She sighs and flops down to the ground. He opens the other bottle with much more ease and joins her.

"Where are the glasses? I'm too classy to drink out of the bottle."

"Tess, I've seen you do a keg stand."

"That was one time, one time," she whines. "I was young."

"And unafraid..." He proceeds to sing as much as he can remember of 'I Dreamed a Dream' while she laughs until she cries.

"I... will... never... be able to use that as music for choreography now," she gulps out.

"It's not like it would have been appropriate for Sophie and Jack," he takes a swig from his champagne. "I'm sorry, but brother and sister teams still freak me out."

"Well, at least my team are actually brother and sister and don't just act like they are." She worries the fizziness is going to her head and making her say things she shouldn't.

"They've been friends for so long, since they started school, they just can't see each other like that so it's hard for them to do romance."

"That never stopped us."

There's a silence as she wishes that she hadn't said that quite so huskily and he wishes that he could stop looking at her.

"We were different," he says finally, as if that's an explanation. Her coat has slipped off her shoulders and he reaches over to put it back on. "I'm sorry I wasn't around today, it's harder than I expected. I'm just so used to whatever was good for you being good for me, and I guess that's not necessarily the case anymore."

"I am so proud of you," she looks at him like he's someone very impressive, "you have taken the first team you've ever coached to a Junior Grand Prix Final podium, that's insane."

"Well, the first team you ever coached just won the Junior Grand Prix Final," he smiles in return.

"I have a bad-ass Russian woman running the show back in Toronto." Tessa laughs, "Can you believe that she made them read Machiavelli just like Marina did with us? it must be in the Russian coach playbook or something."

"Sophie was terrorising Mark with quotes from it."

She looks shocked, "Sophie?! The girl who knits scarves and gives them out to homeless people?"

He laughs, "I was surprised too, they seem like nice kids."

"They are! They're sweet and funny and kind and they care of each other and... I never thought I could care this much about someone else's results, but sometimes I think I'm more worried for them than I ever was for us."

"You had me," he shrugs and she shoves him lightly.

"I couldn't sleep all night before the free dance because I was just imagining that stupid lift."

"Their lifts are..." he wonders should he really go into it, but she's expecting him to continue. "He's not all that strong, she does a lot of the work."

"You mean that he doesn't have to fling her around like a ragdoll because she can handle herself, unlike some people," she replies coolly.

"Is that the way things are going to be now?" He tried to make it sound playful but seeing her stricken impression he's not sure if he succeeded.

"I don't want this to come between us." She looks cold and he takes her into his arms.

They sit like that for he doesn't know how long until she murmurs something about how she should go. He gets up first and she follows suit, swaying as she stands up so he grabs her waist and brings her close to him. He knows what's going to happen next and part of him thinks he knew it when he took her up here. They kiss and most of him knows that this is a spectacularly poor decision, but even more of him has been wanting this for as long as he can remember so he just lets go. Thinking is impossible anyway when all that exists in the world is Tessa's lips on his and Tessa's hair in his hands and Tessa's body tight against his. She overwhelms him, she always has. So he doesn't think about all the reasons why this is wrong as he keeps kissing her or as he carries her down the staircase or as he takes her coat off in the elevator or her dress off in his room. He doesn't think because all there is is Tessa and Tessa is all that matters.

 

He wakes up to find her fully dressed and sitting in the armchair beside his door with a faraway look in her eyes. He goes and kneels down beside her.

"Tessa, it's okay."

"No, no it's not. We shouldn't have... You have..."

"We just need to talk about it," he pleads.

"I can't. If we talk about it everything will fall apart. I, I will fall apart."

She leaves.

 

She cries in the shower. She likes his girlfriend. She has gone shopping with his girlfriend, they've exchanged texts, she visited her class for Career Day and told them about being a lawyer. She feels like she could have stopped this, that some part of her knew where bottles of champagne on a hotel roof would lead. He is too much for her, he has always been too much. That is the reason she has stopped herself from letting go before, she was afraid that it would consume her. And it has. She can still smell him and taste him and feel him. In spite of all of her guilt she knows that if he were to appear right now she would do it all again and again.

She cries, and then she puts herself together and goes downstairs. She has promised to take Sophie and Jack to a little crepêrie she remembers from the time they won worlds.

"You look like you didn't sleep at all last night!" Sophie exclaims and a wave of terror passes through her until she realises that she's talking to Jack who has arrived on her heels. "I heard that Amy didn't spend last night in her room and if she spent it in yours I will kill you."

"Mom and Dad will be upset that you killed their favourite child," he shrugs.

She rolls her eyes at him. "That's not an answer."

"You didn't ask a question. But no, Amy did not spend the night in my room, I was much too busy with the Russian ladies."

Sophie doubles over and Tessa is surprised to find that she can still laugh.

"Thanks for the confidence you have in my skill with women," he sighs.

"I'm sorry," Sophie wheezes. "But seriously, I'm instituting a strict no fraternisation policy. We still need to win Nationals and beat them at Worlds."

Jack shakes his sister's hand. "What about Tessa, does the policy apply to her?"

"Obviously not. Her and Scott's love is pure and true and they should really have gotten it together like yesterday." Sophie smiles at her sunnily.

"He has a girlfriend. Her name is Heather." It's so strange to say the words that have been replaying in her head for the past few hours out loud and she think her voice betrays that something inside of her is breaking.

She can see Sophie and Jack trying to think of something to say before Sophie just links her arm with hers and Jack starts debating the merits of chocolate versus Nutella as a crêpe topping and they all decide that they should send Tanya pictures to show her what she is missing. She feels a little better.

 

He goes home and breaks up with Heather before she can even really touch him. He doesn't know if this is because he has betrayed her or if it is because to let her touch him would in some way be like betraying Tessa.

He feels like he has ruined everything. He waits for her to be ready to talk to him.

He waits.


	3. Chapter 3

_**January 2020** _

Tessa has never contemplated murder before, but she thinks she could do serious damage to whoever came up with the bright idea to host the 2020 nationals in Vancouver to honour the anniversary of the Games (she's concerned it might actually have been her). It almost physically hurts to be here, a place where they were so unbelievably happy. It seems predestined, the whole thing. Boy and girl meet, skate, somewhere along the way fall in love, win the Olympics at home. But at some stage the story got twisted because the first time they properly kissed, the first time they slept together should not have been when the boy was seeing someone else. They can never take that back, and she thinks that maybe they will never move on from that.

She knows she told him they couldn't talk about it because she couldn't cope, but she doesn't know how well she's coping with not talking about it. They've seen each other since the Grand Prix final in Nice, but it's been jaw-droppingly awkward. They had spent five minutes discussing the weather at his parents' Christmas party until she'd decided to whip out her pictures of Emily, Kaitlyn and Andrew's daughter and her god-daughter, but that just turned out to be a whole different kind of uncomfortable. She now thinks that somehow she always expected that she and Scott would end up like that, married with kids, but it just took her a long time to admit it. She can pinpoint the exact moment when the knowledge became crystal clear - her law school boyfriend had started talking about marriage and she suddenly realised that she had never dreamed about marrying anyone but Scott. They had broken up shortly after, but Scott was with Heather and that was that. Until she'd felt him slipping away and held on too close, changing everything.

"I detest the Yankee Polka," Tanya mutters as the music ends and Tessa pulls herself back to the present and the dancers who are just finished rehearsing. She's never been the Yankee Polka's biggest fan either, but she's happy with the way Sophie and Jack's short dance has turned out. They look like reigning national champions who mean to defend their title. Their challengers make their way on to the ice, but their coach is nowhere to be seen. Is Scott avoiding her?

Amy skates a circle around Jack before saying, rather menacingly in Tessa's opinion, "You look tired. Nightmares about those lifts?" She wonders how much trouble she would get into if she threw her clipboard at her. Jack just skates away and tows Sophie, who looks ready for a fight, with him.

"Sophie?" Mark calls and the girl turns to face him with her hands on her hips. "Happy birthday," he smiles.

"What did he mean by that?" Sophie hisses as she gets off the ice.

"What do people usually mean by that?" Tessa asks, bemused. "Well done on being born? Have a nice day?"

"It must be mind games..." she mutters darkly. Tanya and Jack give Tessa looks as if to say 'this is all yours' and make their way out of the rink.

"I really don't think it's mind games," she offers lamely. Why does she always get left with these jobs?

"Of course it is! He knew I would overanalyse it, he wanted me to keep thinking about it so that I'd be distracted!" Sophie's eyes look wild and it reminds her of the time she spent ten minutes trying to calm Scott down after a competitor at one of their first international competitions had told him that they liked his shirt.

"I think you need some cake."

"Cake?" All of a sudden Scott appears before them, looking decidedly out of breath.

"You're late." She finds herself smiling at him.

"I got lost," he reddens.

"You got lost in the place where we won Olympic gold? Don't you remember?"

"That's the problem," he says softly as he makes his way to the boards, "I remember everything."

She just stands there for a minute until Sophie nudges her, "Well, that was... something. You mentioned cake?"

 

Scott hates the Yankee Polka, always has. Coaching it for the past few months had turned out to be more painful than training it ever was. Back then at least he had Tessa then to make things bearable. He figures they're in the last stretch of it now as Amy and Mark speed through the step sequence of their short dance, just this competition, a few more weeks of training, and then, hopefully, Junior Worlds. Amy is concentrating too much, he hopes she isn't trying to add up GOEs again. She has always been so focused on results and what is quantifiable while Mark is the dancer of the two, the one who feels the music. They grin at him when they get off the ice and their smiles widen when they see their scores, but when they leave the kiss and cry and go out to the waiting area to watch the Vaughns their faces become serious. They're special; there's no denying it. He thinks that most of it might be due to the fact that Sophie is bordering on Tessa Virtue levels of crazy talent. They pull ahead, but the lead isn't unassailable.

"Free dance tomorrow," he claps them on the shoulders.

"We can take that one," Mark says confidently, "who likes Harry Potter anyway?" His confidence is fading.

"You read the books five times," Amy reminds him.

"Yeah, but the soundtrack is from the films and they didn't put everything in so it's not the same and... I'm going to go now."

He heads off to the changing room, but Amy remains. Scott is vaguely concerned that she might be waiting to attack Sophie and Jack.

"We skated really well," her voice is quieter than usual.

"You skated great," he assures her.

"But it wasn't enough. I try so hard and I want to win so badly and each time it's not enough." She never usually confides in him like this, he's always had a closer relationship with Mark.

"They're not invincible, Amy. This isn't a sprint, there's going to be a lot of competitions, you'll win some, they'll win some, some other team will win some. You just need to keep trying and keep wanting it."

"I can do that." She throws her arms around him unexpectedly and then leaves.

He runs into Tessa and Tanya and he congratulates them on having two teams on the novice podium. He jokes that their coaching partnership might turn out to be more illustrious than his competitive partnership with her. These interactions are becoming more natural and he wonders if this is how it's going to be and if it would always have ended up like this, moving apart as their teams moved up the ranks, and being reduced to two coaches who swapped platitudes at competitions and family events. He remembers yesterday's encounter and rethinks the idea of them just being two rival coaches. One of them will always end up saying something they shouldn't that will remind them of all they've shared and haven't shared. No, it wouldn't be like this if he hadn't grabbed on to her like a drowning man looking for salvation without a thought for the consequences. He goes to plan her dancers' downfall.

 

Tessa feels surprisingly confident as Sophie and Jack prepare to take their opening positions for their free dance. She has this anticipation that something momentous is going to happen, maybe because her first year juniors decided to pick today as the first day in weeks to perfectly synchronise their twizzles leaving them in fifth place with their training partners to go. Or maybe it's just that this rink holds something magical from that night nearly ten years ago, and she think that if anyone can tap into that it's the team who convinced her to coach. She doesn't often let herself think ahead, it's tempting fate, but as the music starts and Tanya hums the melody she professes to hate, she wonders what Sophie and Jack will dance to when they take to Olympic ice to fight for medals of their own. That has to be where they're headed, these kids with the beautiful edges who move with such grace as they dance into their once dreaded first lift which now looks as easy to them as breathing. They glide through spins and twizzles and she watches the expressions of the audience to see if they're seeing what she is - something special, something unbeatable - and their faces tell her that they are. She notices Jack starting to lag somewhat in the step sequence just before the final lift but she thinks that maybe that might be for the best, they need something to work on coming up to Worlds. He's been tired lately and they just need to improve his stamina. The last lift is the only element left and it won't pose any problems. It's their easiest one, not all that much harder than a similar one performed by one of her novice teams, but it's so pretty.

It's strange, but whenever she had imagined things going truly terribly wrong it had always involved Sophie's black hair spread over the ice and her limbs askew. That line of thought really doesn't make all that much sense because Sophie has always had exquisite understanding of her body in space. So when her brother crumples as he lifts her skyward, she hops out of his arms effortlessly as if this movement is just another one they've perfected. Except it isn't, this isn't meant to happen. Time seems to move too fast and too slow all at once and all she's left with is little snatches. She sees Jack being stretchered off the ice. She hears Tanya mumble something in Russian, maybe a prayer, as she grips her arm too tightly. She wants to go get Sophie from the ice where she's still kneeling, but she's afraid Tanya will collapse without her. She feels herself sigh in relief when Mark, who must be the Junior National champion now, skates onto the ice, gently helps her up and puts his Canada jacket around her shaking shoulders. He leads her over to the boards where she just falls into her and Tanya. Tessa has prided herself on being able to make Sophie feel better about anything from spots to twizzles, but now there is nothing she can say so she just holds her as she cries.

 

"Tessa, you must be freezing. What are you doing out here?" He finds her sitting outside the hospital on a bench and takes his place beside her.

"I think I was waiting for you. I knew you'd come, even after everything." She takes his hand in hers, glove on glove, and there's still this current of electricity. It's the closest they've been in months.

"Where else would I be?" He should be at the party to celebrate his team becoming national champions. "I brought their medals. They won silver and it was still pretty close. That free dance was perfect up until..." he clears his throat. "They're going to come back better than ever."

She takes the medals from him and examines them carefully, "No, these are their last medals. Our last medals were silver too, but we had a lot more of them." He doesn't know if her voice has ever sounded quite this sad.

"I am so, so sorry. Are the doctors sure?" He doesn't know what to say.

"His back is an absolute mess. He's going to need a lot of surgery; ice dance just isn't feasible. It's been like that for months and none of us noticed. I should have seen it."

"Tess, you couldn't have known..."

She cuts him off, "He was tired, but I just thought it was because he was busy with college applications. He wants to be a doctor like his dad. Scott, he stole prescription pads from his father so he could self-medicate and keep dancing. I had a kid who was hopped up on painkillers and I just didn't see it. I just kept pushing him to do those stupid lifts... They say it's congenital, that his back would always have caused him problems, but the lifts didn't help. If Sophie hadn't been so good at holding herself... it could have been a lot worse. I should have known, I should have stopped him."

"We all make our own choices, he thought he was doing the best he could. Sometimes we just don't make the right ones. This isn't your fault."

She breathes shallowly, "If he had just talked to me, talked to someone. Bad things happen when you don't talk about things, don't they?" She looks at him and he's not sure what she's talking about now.

"Maybe you'll talk about it properly someday soon, when you're both ready," he says carefully.

She rests her head on his shoulder and he stays with her until she's ready to go back in.

 

It's late when she makes it up to Jack's hospital room and Sophie is curled up asleep in the armchair beside his bed, still wearing her free dance costume and that oversized Team Canada jacket. Tanya is in the armchair on the other side and she and Jack appear to be in scheming mode. The silver medals chink in her pocket but now is not the time to give them to their owners.

"What are you two up to?" she whispers, perching herself on the armrest of Tanya's chair.

"Deciding who is going to be joining Sophie on top of the Olympic podium, Tanya thinks she has a candidate," Jack replies casually.

She wonders if they should be talking about this, but maybe this is his way of dealing with the guilt?

"Oh really, who do you have in mind?"

"Mark Truman," Tanya announces.

"He has a partner who he's been with since they were kids. He'd never agree." More to the point, she would never do that to Scott.

"He would if he thinks about what is best. Sophie is a better partner, she can dance, hit a full split, not have to be dragged around like a sulky toddler... He is the best young ice dance boy, she is the best young ice dance girl. It makes sense."

"Amy is his best friend. He wouldn't leave her the minute someone better comes along. You're going to need to keep looking." Mark has always reminded her of Scott, and he never left her.

"What are you talking about?" Sophie sounds like she's still half asleep.

"Who we're going to marry you off to," Jack quips.

"Okay, make sure he has nice shoulders..." her head droops down.

"Mark has good strong shoulders, he seems like such a nice young boy," the Russian sighs dramatically, "but Tessa won't even call her partner and arrange the engagement."

Tessa hits her and Jack laughs so loudly that the nurse and his mom come in. The nurse tries to get them to leave because it's past visiting hours, but his mom tells her that they're family.

 

She returns to Toronto and tries to act like everything's okay with the other teams at the rink, but she's glad when she can go home and stop pretending. There's a knock at her door and Tessa wonders who it could be. She really hopes it's not that guy Tanya had set her up with before Nationals, she's fairly sure he was in the Russian mob. She opens the door to find Sophie.

"I'm sorry I came. I can leave if you're busy. I know it's weird that I'm here, but I needed to talk to someone, I needed to talk to you and I can't do it on the phone..."

Tessa puts her arm around the babbling girl and takes her inside, "You're welcome here whenever you want."

They go into the sitting room and Sophie gravitates towards a photograph that graces a side table beside Tessa's couch.

"This is from Vancouver, isn't it?" She picks up the picture of Tessa and Scott performing Mahler and then sets it down reverently before sitting down.

Tessa joins her, "Yes, it's my favourite." She doesn't explain why, not even to herself usually.

"Vancouver is some spot." Sophie takes a breath, "Tanya wants me to come back to practice tomorrow and Jack wants to put me up on Partner Search and I just don't know if I'm ready." She pauses, "I don't know if I want to come back. It feels like I'm betraying him, but at the same time... I want to skate, I want to dance, I don't know what I'd do without it." She takes a glance at the photograph beside her, "If this had happened to Scott, would you have got a new partner?"

Tessa considers lying to her, wonders if that would make her a better coach by doing everything she can to keep her in the sport, but she can't. "No. He would have wanted me to but I wouldn't have."

Sophie's eyes are serious, but her smile is grateful, "Thanks, for telling me the truth."

Tessa takes her hand, "That doesn't mean you need to do what I would have done. Scott and I are, were...different. We weren't brother and sister, and we weren't like Amy and Mark, or Meryl and Charlie. We were...," she gestures towards the picture, "that."

Sophie lets out a giggle, "That was pretty special." She takes the photo frame and rests it on her lap, looking down at it intently. "Sometimes I think I made this happen, that it was all my fault."

"It's not. The doctors said you made everything so much easier for him. We all could have done something to stop it, this isn't on you."

"No, it's not the lifts, or even not noticing what he was up to." Her voice lowers, "Sometimes I just really hate, hated, dancing with my brother. I used to wish I could dance with someone else. Someone who I could do different types of routines with, someone who might... I don't know." She traces her finger down the frame, "I wanted to dance with someone who looks at me like that."

Tessa puts her arms around her, "I can't promise I will find you someone who looks at you like that, but I promise that if you want to keep skating I will do everything I can to find you the best partner. If you don't want to dance that's okay too. We won't think any less or any more of you, you'll still be Sophie, and you'll find something wonderful to do next."

 

When Tessa makes it to the rink the next morning she finds Sophie practising footwork and smiles.

The search begins.


	4. Chapter 4

_**March 2020** _

Scott knows you're not meant to pick up your phone during a party but when Tessa Virtue calls, you answer.

"Am I speaking with the coach of the silver medallists at Junior Worlds?"

"Yes, yes you are." He starts to make his way out of the function room.

"Oh, it's really loud. Are you at the banquet? I can call some other time. I just wanted to say..."

He stops her. Even though they've been talking more since Nationals he isn't going to miss out on a chance to listen to her voice. "You're actually saving me. They're playing some terrible music by people I've never heard of. I'd prefer to do five hours of conditioning than suffer through it."

"Well, if you're sure." He can hear her smile. "I had to ring to congratulate you. They looked great."

"Thanks. Mark's twizzles during the free dance were, um, interesting."

"The Russians would probably have passed them out no matter what. Anyway, you need something to motivate them to win next year! The look Amy gave him afterwards was probably my highlight of the competition."

"It was pretty intense." He would have cowered in the corner if Tessa had ever reacted like that to one of his mistakes.

"It was a Marina level bitchface. I didn't know whether to laugh or hide. I ended up having to turn it off anyway because Sophie came into my office and I didn't want to watch it in front of her."

He knows that if Sophie and Jack had been here and healthy they would have won the competition easily, but telling her that isn't going to do anyone any good. "How are she and Jack doing?"

"Jack has a big surgery in a few weeks, so everyone's a bit nervous about how that's going to go. Sophie has her first tryout tomorrow! It's with that American whose partner left him for her boyfriend last summer, Austin Smith?"

"Oh yeah, they won a couple of Junior Grand Prix medals, didn't they? Tall kid, nice expression." As far as he remembered the boy wasn't at Sophie's level skating-wise. That was probably going to be an issue with most junior male skaters.

"I don't know how it's going to go. His coach seems really excited about it."

"Any coach with an unattached male dancer will be banging at your door. A lot of attached dancers are going to be banging at your door. You're going to be fielding a lot of calls after Worlds, Junior and Senior. A girl like that is not going to have a problem finding a partner." She might have a problem finding a partner who was as talented as she was. He thinks that Tessa is well aware of this.

"I'm worried that I won't know if they should skate together. She's never skated with anyone but Jack, and I'm so used to watching them... It's not like I had tryouts. I just had you."

She still does. They stay on the phone for the rest of the banquet, reminiscing about their own adventures at Junior Worlds. They don't talk about the things they need to discuss, but, for now, this is enough.

 

_**April 2020** _

Tessa is about to leave for home when she notices that the lights are still on in the rink. She goes in and finds a familiar figure who, although his movement is clearly hampered, still skates as beautifully as ever.

"Jack! Are you sure you should be skating? You have your surgery tomorrow!"

He skates to her, "I just wanted to skate one last time. I don't know when I'll be able to do it again, or even if..."

"You will. I know it." She should probably have learned to stop making promises by now.

He gets off the ice and joins her on a bench. "I'm so sorry, about everything. If I had said something sooner we could have got Sophie a new partner earlier and you wouldn't still be searching."

"I'm just concerned about you getting better. We'll find a partner for Sophie. The first tryout wasn't great, but we'll have more options now that Senior Worlds is over and people are re-evaluating." The first tryout was more truthfully a disaster and had ended with Sophie being led straight into the boards. She was still sporting bruises on her legs.

"She deserves someone fantastic. Someone who can dance and do really difficult lifts and take care of her properly. I'm going to need to interview whoever he is to make sure he's good enough for her." His expression is a prototype of the protective big brother.

"She deserves the best," Tessa agrees. She doesn't want to think yet about how people, as far as she's seen, rarely seem to get all that they deserve.

They sit in companionable silence for a few minutes before Tanya rushes in with a bottle of vodka and three chipped mugs from the rink's kitchen.

"I have found him!" she exclaims. She hands a mug to both Jack and Tessa and proceeds to place expert measures of vodka in them before filling her own mug a bit more generously. "We will toast to Sophie's new partner!"

"We can't give Jack alcohol! What about child protection guidelines and... and he's on painkillers and he has surgery tomorrow!" Tessa spits out.

"He is nineteen now," Tanya shrugs

"I've been on painkillers for a while, it's not like I haven't mixed them with alcohol before." Tanya looks less impressed with this.

"Aren't you going to tell us who it is before we toast? Should I be worried that you want me to do a shot before I find out?"

"Drink," Tanya orders. Tessa acquiesces.

"Now more," she refills their mugs.

"I'm officially worried. Have you lured Scott out of retirement and you're trying to numb me to the pain so I don't go berserk?"

"Vodka goes to your head too quickly. We must work on your tolerance. No, next week Sophie had a tryout with Igor Balandin." Tanya looks very proud of herself.

"Igor Balandin?!" Jack and Tessa chorus. Tessa downs the contents of her mug.

"Yes, Igor Balandin, the current World bronze medallist and Russian, European and Grand Prix champion."

"Igor Balandin whose partner just dumped him because he was cheating on her with every other female member of the Russian team plus anyone else who tickled his fancy?!" Tessa thinks that she might have felt more comfortable with the idea of Scott dancing with Sophie.

"I heard he dumped her because she was pregnant." Tanya's face shows that she's not exactly a fan of his off-ice activity.

"This is the man you want my sister to skate with. My seventeen year old sister." Jack's voice is dangerous.

"That's what makes it okay!" Tessa looks at her fellow coach, dumbfounded. "She is too young for him so nothing will happen and they can focus on skating! Tessa said he kept looking at her at the banquet for the Grand Prix Final so she will be able to keep him occupied. She can, what do they say, take one for the team!"

"That is not a part of my job description!"

"He does have great edges," Jack acknowledges.

"I need more vodka." She still isn't sold on this idea, there are so many questions.

Tanya fulfils her request. "He is only five years older than her so they won't look awkward together. She will have to move up to seniors, but she's better than a lot of the senior girls anyway. I don't know what will happen nationality-wise but... We want the best partner for Sophie. We're not going to get a much better prospect. He approached me. He knows how special she is. He won't want to make a mess of this."

 

The Vaughn/Balandin partnership looks a lot more attractive when Tessa watches Sophie stroke around the rink hand in hand with the Russian. Igor seems sweet and polite. Maybe she had misinterpreted things, listened to rumours. She's heard some ridiculous rumours about herself in the past. He does have great edges. The dancers begin to waltz and she smiles at Tanya. She's beginning to get excited when her planning is interrupted by a phone call.

"Oh, it's Maddie's mom. I need to take this and make sure she's not suing us." Tessa's youngest set of partners were not exactly taking to each other. If not exactly taking to each other encompassed flinging your partner into the boards and landing her in hospital for stitches, that is. In Tyler's defence, the girl had just asked him whether his dad had left because he didn't love him.

"No matter, you can put your law degree to use if she does." Tessa rolls her eyes at Tanya and makes her way to her office.

The rink is empty by the time she finally gets the woman off the phone so she heads to Tanya's office to find out how the rest of the tryout went.

"We're not being sued! She wanted to apologise! It turns out she's going through a messy divorce with her husband and Maddie isn't taking it well. Tyler came with flowers and apparently they've bonded so it might all be for the best! The tryout finished quickly, did it go that well?"

She takes in the look on Tanya's face. The tryout did not go well. "You were right. I was wrong. He is a predator and I let him loose on poor Sophie. He said 'Next season's dance is tango romantica. Let's try that.' I thought that was good, he is serious about this. He is only serious about one thing. The way he looked at her..."

"Maybe he was performing. He knows how great Sophie he is, he probably wanted to make a big impression," Tessa suggests.

"No, it was really bad." Tessa turns to find Sophie leaning against the doorframe. "There were hands... I'm going home to wash myself in bleach."

"I am so sorry, if you want to talk about it..." She can't believe she let this happen.

Sophie smiles at her wryly, "I think I handled it pretty well. We had to leave him writhing on the ice for a while. That whole knee to the groin trick is very effective."

When it's just the two of them Tanya sighs, "I thought it would work out. He was good enough for her technically. They looked so nice together with her dark hair and his blonde."

"We'll find someone else. Maybe he won't be as good as she is but we can build him up."

"Tessa, I'm getting old. I'm just so tired." Tessa reaches over and takes the older woman's hands in hers. "I was going to set Sophie and Jack up for a great senior career and then retire, well, move into the background. And now Jack will never compete again and Sophie has to find a new partner. They were my babies, my special ones, and I let them down."

"You did no such thing. You gave them everything you could and they were the best they could be. Jack is going to go off to med school and be a doctor, he always wanted that. We will find a partner good enough for Sophie. I don't know when, but we will."

 

Scott knocks at her door and questions, yet again, why he just drove all the way to Toronto. After some momentary madness he realised that this situation really doesn't have all that much to do with her, but she is the only person he wants to talk to. So, he knocks again.

She opens the door and a look of surprise crosses her face as she ushers him in. "I wasn't expecting it to be you. I thought it might be Sophie. The tryout with Balandin yesterday went even worse than the last one. It turns out he is exactly as bad as all the rumours make him out to be. The poor girl who ends up with him is going to have her hands full." She shivers and curls up on her couch. "What brings you to Toronto?"

He tears his eyes away from the photo of the two of them taken in Vancouver and turns to look at her. "Igor Balandin, I guess."

She raises her eyebrows at him. "Don't tell me you're thinking about coaching him."

He laughs bitterly. Tessa looks utterly perplexed. He knows she needs an explanation for why he landed at her apartment with no warning, but now that he's here he doesn't want to say it out loud, he doesn't want to make it real. He takes a deep breath.

"Amy showed up at the rink for practice this evening and told us that she was leaving and going to skate with Balandin."

"She what?!" He doesn't know if he's ever seen anyone look so confused and disgusted at the same time.

"Ten years of partnership just gone. She said she didn't think Mark could take her to where she wanted. He messed up some twizzles! We've all messed up twizzles! They've been best friends since they were five, before they even started skating together. They were paired up on some school trip when he helped her up after she fell. Amy always said it would make for a great fluff piece."

"I am so sorry. I don't even know what to say. I just can't understand how..."

"Of course you can't!" he interrupts her. "You would never have done it and I would never have... I would never leave you, you know that, don't you?" Telling her this, and making her understand, feels more important than anything else he has to say.

"I know," she says simply and takes his hand.

"I thought they were like us. They came from the same little rink, they were so talented, and they had been together for so long. Obviously in some ways they were completely different to us," he steals a look at the picture of the two of them, "but... You can't help thinking ahead. I believed they could win it all."

"How is Mark taking it?"

"He's in total shock. It's like we're going through the five stages of grief and he's still in denial while I've moved on to anger. I have to apologise actually. I had this crazy idea for about five seconds that you had arranged it. Then I realised that made no sense because why would have him dance with anyone but Sophie and it's not as if you're the biggest fan of Amy."

Thankfully Tessa looks more amused than offended. "There are very few people I want to coach less than the two of them. Anyway, I wouldn't do that to you."

"I know."

They sit together in silence for a while before an awkward expression passes Tessa's face. It's the look she has when she's afraid of what his reaction will be. "Scott?"

"Yeah?" Are they finally going to talk about what is happening between them?

"When will it not be insensitive of me to ask you can Sophie have a tryout with Mark?"

He throws his head back and laughs. "Tessa, since when have you had such a one track mind? Is that all you've been thinking about while I've been pouring out my sad tale?"

She blushes. "No! It's just that she's great, and he's great, and together they could be..."

"Great?" he finishes for her. He's about to tell her what a great investment all the money she spent on university was when his phone rings. "It's Mark so I had better take it."

 

Tessa shows Scott into her kitchen so he can take his phone call. Her spare room would be more comfortable, but it's been turned into a walk-in wardrobe. It's also filled with the pictures of them she removed from around her apartment after they got too hard to look at so it might have a weird stalker vibe. She picks up the picture of them from Vancouver, the one she couldn't bring herself to hide, and holds it to her chest.

She hears the door to her apartment being opened and Tanya all but dances into the room with a bottle of champagne. She grabs Tessa by the waist and spins her around.

"Our prayers are answered!" Tanya claps her hands excitedly. "That stupid girl has run off to dance with Igor Balandin and now Mark Truman is free!"

She flops down on the couch and Tessa tries to let her know that Scott is here, but Tanya is in full flow. When she is really enthused there is no stopping her as Tessa learned one day when she innocently asked what Torvill and Dean were like live. Three hours later she felt that she had a good idea. So she just pours the champagne as Tanya gushes.

"This time I didn't even have to get you drunk before telling you who I wanted Sophie to dance with! This time we can actually celebrate! Ha! Marina rang me to tell me all about the wonderful new team she was getting and I pretended to be jealous, but inside I was laughing! Can you imagine leaving a boy with such potential for that excuse for a man? I think we now know where she was that night at the Grand Prix Final! Don't look at me like that, I hear everything! Oh, Sophie and Mark are going to be beautiful together! They can skate, they can dance, he can lift, she looks lovely in lifts. It's perfect! Now I can retire because of course Scott will have to keep coaching his protégé so he can take over the technical side at the rink! You two will work together and you'll fix the mess you got yourselves into."

Tessa think she can feel Scott hovering in the doorway, but she can't look at him.

"What happened was not your finest hour, but we all do stupid things when we're in love! So you two will eventually get everything sorted and then you can get married and have children and you can coach them! But first you will coach Sophie and Mark! Now, you have to be subtle with how you approach it. Don't ask him, let him come to you. Just call him and tell him how sorry you were to hear that the little witch ran off on him. Don't call her that. Then maybe casually mention how hard it is to find someone talented enough for Sophie. Then he will suggest Mark and you can pretend like you hadn't been thinking it all along!"

"Her plan is much better than yours, Tess."

Tanya turns to see Scott and whips back around to Tessa. "Why didn't you tell me he was here?!"

"I couldn't get a word in!" she protests. "How is Mark?" she asks Scott, trying not to think about all that he overheard.

"Upset, but he still wants to skate. So," he pours himself a glass of champagne, "I guess we should toast to the Vaughn/Truman world-beating duo."

"We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. They might hate the idea or look terrible together," Tessa warns.

Tanya shakes her head. "It will go perfectly, I can tell."

The three of them clink glasses. Scott smiles at her. She needs this to go perfectly.

 

"It's going to be terrible," Sophie wails from the backseat as they drive to Ilderton. "He probably hates me. We've competed against each other all our lives!"

"Well, you can't be his least favourite person in the world. You didn't abandon him after ten years," Tanya says calmly.

"That's not all that helpful," Tessa whispers. "Sophie, he was really sweet to you at Nationals. He doesn't hate you."

"What if we have nothing in common? He's from the country, I'm from the city."

"You could talk about vegetables," Tanya suggests. Tessa takes her eyes off the road briefly to stare at her. "What? She likes vegetables and they grow vegetables in the country, don't they?"

"Tanya, I think this whole situation has pushed you over the edge. Sophie, people from the country are not a different species. Anyway, didn't you say before meeting Igor that it didn't matter if you were friends as long as you skated well together?"

"That was... different," Sophie replies stiffly.

"You seem a lot more nervous than you were before the other tryouts," Tessa observes, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"He's so ridiculously talented and, and... I don't want to mess it up. With the others... I had never imagined skating with them before and I maybe, might have done that about Mark."

"Oh really?" Tanya turns around and Tessa knows the look on her face all too well.

"Stop looking at me like that! Tessa, you're doing it too, I can see it in the mirror!"

"Don't worry. If it works out - that's great. If it doesn't - we'll find someone else. As for the ice dancing..."

"Tessaaaa!" Sophie whines.

"I'm sorry. I'll be good."

Sophie takes a deep breath as they pass a sign telling them that they're nearing their destination. "I can do this. I am calm. I am cool. I am collected. I have not been sleeping in his jacket semi-regularly since Nationals."

"Maybe don't lead with that," Tessa advises.

"Haha," her voice drips with sarcasm, "this is going to go great."

 

"It's going to be terrible. Do you think she hates me? I think she might."

Scott isn't entirely sure if he's ever seen Mark display this type of nervousness. He keeps pacing in front of him and it's freaking him out.

"I think she just disliked Amy. Look, you already have something in common!"

"Scott, that's not helping. I don't even know if I dislike Amy, I just hate what she did."

"I know. Sit down before you tire yourself out." Marks sits beside him as they look out the glass doors of the rink's reception area and wait.

"If I wasn't good enough for her, how on earth am I meant to be good enough for Sophie? She's practically perfect! She turned down Igor freaking Balandin!"

"Amy made a rash decision, she wasn't thinking about long-term potential. Anyway, I think turning him down had less to do with his skating and more to do with his personal failings. So don't start feeling her up if she doesn't want you to."

"He did what? Now I really want to kill him." The glower on his face is surprisingly familiar. It's graced his own at the mention of some of Tessa's exes. Sometimes Scott wonders what his dad was up to in the early 2000s.

"You're already thinking like a protective partner!"

"How am I meant to protect her when I can't keep my head straight? I dropped Amy when I saw her, just saw her. What will I be like when she's the one I'm lifting?"

"Oh! Ohhhhh." That explains a lot actually. He tries to come up with some words of advice when he sees Tessa making her way to the rink's doors with Sophie and Tanya on her heels.

"I skated with her. You'll figure something out."

 

"Please tell me we weren't that awkward," Scott says under his breath as they watch Mark and Sophie try to make small talk as they put on their skates. They're hovering behind their students like parents on the first day of school.

"We had known each other all our lives, it was easier," Tessa smiles up at him.

They both turn to look at Tanya as they hear her mumble, "Awkwardness came later."

He brings his attention back to the teenagers.

"Congratulations on Worlds!" He likes this girl.

"Thanks. If you'd have been there you'd have been... um..." Smooth, Mark, very smooth. "How's your brother?"

"His surgery went well. He can sit up by himself now. How's Amy?"

"We're… not exactly talking right now?"

"I'm sorry. Of course... That's why I'm here!" This conversation is beginning to cause Scott actual pain.

"So, um, do you want to skate?"

"Yes!" Sophie gets up so enthusiastically that she nearly topples over. Mark catches her before she falls.

"Thank you," she blushes. "I'm a lot more graceful on the ice, I promise!"

They look like they're about to start dancing. Mark's arms are at her waist while hers are at his shoulders.

"I noticed. Not that you're not graceful off the ice, or that I've been watching you in a weird way..."

"Just go and skate!" Tanya groans.

Their on-ice interaction is the opposite of awkward. They float around hand-in-hand, blades stroking in a rhythm which must be new to both of them but looks completely natural. Their height difference is almost eerily perfect, as if they'd been designed to dance together. They had both been a little too tall for their previous partners, but together they fit seamlessly. The move into dance hold without being prompted and Scott scurries to put on some music for them to waltz to.

Of course it couldn't be too easy. Mark takes off too quickly and Sophie nearly falls but he catches her again.

"I'm so sorry! I can skate without knocking people over, I promise!"

Sophie laughs. "Don't worry, I noticed. We can start again."

Scott puts the music back to the beginning. At first they move tentatively, Mark's hand is too high on her back and they could fit two of Tessa in the space between them. But somehow they seem to meld together as they move around the ice until they are no longer two separate dancers but one unit. Their lines don't quite match, but there's something beautiful about the way they dance all the same. Perhaps that's the most striking thing - that they're really dancing and not just skating around. Or maybe it's the way that even though they couldn't look each other in the eye ten minutes earlier now they can't take their eyes away from one another. The music stops and the rink is completely silent.

Scott sees Tessa looking happier than he's seen her in forever. He thinks Tanya is wiping a tear from her eye.

He clears his throat, "So, how was that?"

The teenagers break apart as if they've been caught doing something forbidden.

"It was..."

"Um..."

"I felt..."

"Like..."

"Yes," Sophie says decisively.

"It was... yes?" There's a hopeful note to Tessa's voice.

Sophie looks at Mark, "I mean, if you want. It's okay if..."

"We think we should skate together," he states firmly.

Tessa squeezes his hand. They both look towards their intertwined fingers and he knows from the expression on her face that she doesn't know when they reached out for one another either.

"Why don't you try some other dance patterns? Spend more time on the ice together?" Tanya suggests brightly.

Sophie and Mark return to dance hold gratefully as if being that close is eminently better and more comfortable than being apart. He knows how they feel. He hasn't let go of Tessa's hand.


	5. Chapter 5

_**June 2020** _

"Maybe we should take a break." Scott tries not to sigh. Mark and Sophie can do this lift perfectly off ice, but all their attempts to perform it on the surface for which it is intended have failed.

"I'm going to... get some water." Sophie skates off the ice with a look on her face that reminds him of Tessa's _don't mind me, I'm just going to cry in the locker room for five minutes_ expression.

Mark moves to go after her, but Tessa stops him. "We should work on your hands." Apparently Mark isn't holding his hands properly when not in hold and if he doesn't improve Tanya will cut them off.

Tessa turns to him, "You should go check on Sophie."

"Me?" he squeaks. "Shouldn't you do that?" The only crying teenage girl Scott had ever known how to deal with was Tessa.

"She needs to know you're here for her," Tessa says softly. "We're all a team now."

Tessa believes in him so he goes to find Sophie. She's sitting with her back to the wall and her knees at her chest. He sits down beside her.

She rubs her eyes with her sleeve. "I wasn't expecting you. They always used to send Tessa for things like this."

"She sent me." He invokes his best Tessa impression, "You need to know I'm here for you."

Sophie giggles. "Sometimes her inner psychologist comes out."

"I'm not entirely sure how I'm meant to show that. What does Tessa do?"

"Usually we just sit and talk. One time we skipped the rest of practice and went shopping." She laughs at the terrified look on his face.

"Sitting and talking sounds good." They just sit without talking for a while.

"It's stupid. I should be able to do a lift I can do off ice. I can do all the simpler lifts."

"It's not stupid," he assures her. "The last time you did a lift that complicated..." Great move Scott, bring up that time her brother collapsed and his career ended.

"My mom thinks I should go to a sports psychologist because I have trauma or something but it's not about that."

"It's not?" He had assumed that Sophie's new lift issues were related to that day in January.

"I trust Mark, I do, it's just that... Jack is my big brother, for as long as I can remember he's been looking after me and making sure I'm okay. He's the only person I had skated with before this and it's just... it's hard. I know in my head that he won't drop me, but when it comes to taking those difficult lifts to the ice, I freeze." She makes a face. "That wasn't meant to be a pun."

"Of course it's going to be hard but maybe you just need to go for it." He thinks he has a quote for this occasion, "Loving someone requires a leap of faith...a soft landing is never guaranteed."

Sophie just stares at him.

"Wait, that was a terrible thing to quote. I don't mean that he's going to let you fall! Or that you should fall in love with him! I was trying to say that you love to skate and sometimes ..."

"I liked the quote. I just did not have you pegged as a Sarah Dessen fan."

"I'm a man of mystery," he intones solemnly. "Who's Sarah Dessen though? I just saw it in that chain email full of love quotes that Tanya sent."

Sophie snorts. "That wasn't a chain email. She just sent it to you, me, Tessa and Mark. Has she tried locking you two in the cleaning supply closet yet? She did it to us yesterday."

It's his turn to stare. He doesn't think it would be entirely appropriate to ask her what happened.

"Nothing happened. Not that..." She sighs, "We have to skate together. I want this to work out."

"Nothing happened between me and Tessa when we were skating. That's probably why we had so much success." He doesn't know if he believes this.

Sophie opens her mouth and closes it.

"Say what you were going to say. I'm here for you, remember?"

"I can't. I shouldn't have even thought it."

"I can guarantee you that I've heard it before."

She averts her gaze from his. "I was going to ask you how that was going now."

"Well, I'm 32 and I spent last night watching old hockey games with my eighteen year old ice dance student. Meanwhile, my friend who married his skating partner sent me videos of his daughter learning to walk. So yeah, it's not going great."

"Old hockey games are fun and at least you coach someone you actually want to send time with. As for the marrying skating partners thing..." A soft smile comes to her face, "Loving someone requires a leap of faith."

"And now I'm getting relationship advice from a seventeen year old. This is probably really unprofessional."

"My other coach locked me in a closet with an older boy. You're doing okay."

"Tanya really doesn't get the concept of retirement, does she?"

Sophie laughs and he thinks he mightn’t be so bad at dealing with crying teenage girls after all.

 

"Is Tanya watching me from a secret hiding place?" Mark frets as he tries to make his hands look natural while working through a step sequence.

"No, her grandchildren have sports' day so you're safe." Tessa tries not to laugh.

"Good, because I really like having hands."

"You're getting much better." She turns off the music. "Is there anything else you're worried about?"

He joins her at the boards. "Um, the whole lift thing. I'm just so used to skating with Amy and it's different with Sophie. Not a bad different, not at all, but different."

"It will come together. You two have something special, you'll figure it out." She really isn't worried, she knows that they will.

"I want to let her know that I'm there for and I'm not going to let her fall."

She's about to say 'tell her that' (she's the queen of giving advice she fails to take) when Scott and Sophie return.

"My hands look less claw-like now," Mark announces proudly.

"Very impressive." Sophie skates into his arms and they begin a hushed, serious discussion.

"What did you two talk about?" Tessa asks.

Scott shrugs, "This and that. We have a secret bond so I can't tell you anything about it."

She pokes him and is about to let him know what she thinks of this secret bond when all of a sudden Mark is spinning Sophie around in the air. At first her body looks oddly stiff but then he whispers something in her ear and she just relaxes into him. He puts her down gently and they both smile.

"That was better, much better," Scott smiles before his face turns serious. "You probably should let us know before you go into lift mode. Now, do it again."

They keep repeating the lift and each time it gets smoother and each time Mark whispers something into her ear.

"I'm here," Tessa murmurs.

Scott looks at her like she might be crazy, "I know you are."

She rolls her eyes at him. "That's what he's saying to her. It's what you used to tell me."

He smirks, "He has a great coach."

"I know he does," Tessa says drily. "She started to fix the weird way he holds his hands."

He pulls her close to him in a one-armed hug. "So that's the way it's going to be now?"

"Yes, yes it is." It feels so natural to be close to him, like she isn't meant to be anywhere else.

"I still am, here that is," his voice is softer now.

"I know you are." She lets her head rest on his shoulder for a minute as they watch Sophie and Mark begin to shine.

 

_**October 2020** _

"I'm going for a walk," Mark says glumly.

They've arrived back to the hotel in Tallinn after the free dance of their Junior Grand Prix event, a free dance which didn't go exactly to plan. Their chances of qualifying for the Grand Prix final had looked promising after winning a silver medal at their first event, but that's not going to happen now.

"I'll go with you," Tessa offers.

They walk in silence for a few minutes and Tessa is grateful for the fact that her new phone does useful things with maps because she has no clue where they are.

"It's all my fault." Mark sounds desolate.

"You both made mistakes, it happens to everyone at some stage," she reminds him gently.

"I messed up those twizzles and that's probably why we missed the entrance to that lift."

"I can't even remember how many times I messed up twizzles and my career with Scott still turned out okay."

"You had been together forever and you were... whatever you were. The girl I was with for ten years dropped me after I made less of a mess so what is Sophie going to do?"

Tessa shrugs in reply, "Practise twizzles and work on the entrance to that lift?"

Mark just looks at her.

"Okay, you're entitled to have trust issues, but this isn't the end for you two. You've only been skating together for a very short time; every performance isn't going to be perfect. You know that and Sophie knows that."

"I just want to do everything perfectly for her," he sighs.

"I know you do." They sit down on a bench. "Even with all the mistakes I still think you made great progress today. You connected together so beautifully." They really did, it had taken her breath away.

"It reminded me of the time we skated together first, that day in Ilderton?" She nods in response.

"It was like we were the only two people in the world and that being with her was all that mattered. When we left hold to go into the twizzle section I felt so lost and well, you saw what happened then. You're smiling, why are you smiling? I just told you how I lost focus during a competition, coaches aren't meant to smile at that!"

"It's not a bad thing to feel that way. That's what skating with Scott was like for me. You just need to work on not letting it overwhelm you." That's what being with Scott was still like and she was still worried that it would overwhelm her.

"Okay. Do you, do you think she felt it too?"

Tessa manages to contain her urge to squeal 'She likes you!! Sometimes she sleeps in your jacket!!" because professionalism, and mainly due to the fact that it would be cruel to Sophie. Instead she tells him, "She bailed on that lift looking really dazed. She felt it too."

 

Scott is beginning to worry that Tessa and Mark have been kidnapped by Eastern European mercenaries when Sophie appears before him in the hotel lobby.

"I think we should go look for them. They're not answering their phones."

Ringing them would have been a good idea. He puts his coat on.

They've been wandering for a little while when Sophie breaks the silence.

"He just took off. What if he doesn't want to skate with me any longer?"

Scott avoids his urge to laugh. "I really don't think that will be a problem. I'd say it's more likely he's worried that you don't want to skate with him."

Sophie screws up her face in a look of complete confusion. "Why wouldn't I want to skate with him? He just made a mistake on his twizzles. I bailed on a lift."

"His last partner didn't react that well to him messing up some twizzles."

"She's an idiot," Sophie says hotly. "Though I should probably be happy about that. He's the best partner I could have. Don't tell my brother I said that."

"I won't," he promises, "you might want to tell Mark though."

"It's so different to skating with Jack."

"I should hope it is!" If he ever saw a brother and sister looking at each other the way Mark and Sophie do he would be calling child protective services.

"Sometimes it's just too much. I got totally distracted today, it was like I forget where we were and what we were meant to be doing. He looked at me like... and I felt..."

"He looked at you like? You felt? Words, Sophie, use your words."

"I like that we've bonded and that you're 'here for me' or whatever, but this is a Tessa conversation."

"I don't know whether to be offended or grateful." He's leaning towards grateful.

"There they are!" Sophie points towards a bench. Mark and Tessa walk towards them.

"We were getting worried about you two," Scott explains.

"I'm sorry about the twizzles and the not getting into the Grand Prix Final," Mark blurts out.

"I'm sorry about missing the lift. I don't mind about the final though, we'll still be juniors next year so we can just go then."

"Next year," Mark grins.

"Anyway, I won it last year so it's not that big a deal," Sophie teases. "I've moved on to thinking about winning the Senior Grand Prix Final now. Tessa and Scott never managed that."

"That wasn't our fault! Stupid judges," Scott bristles while Tessa gives him her _sportsmanship, Scott!_ look.

"We should really start working on beating all their records," Mark declares as he puts his arm through Sophie's as they head back to the hotel "So seven Canadian titles, three World championships and two Olympic golds."

"You're getting a bit ahead of yourself there," Tessa snorts, but they're not listening to her.

"We'll need a unique lift too, something with a better name than 'the Goose'," Sophie notes.

"I think 'the Goose' is a great name," Scott protests.

"The Moose?" Mark suggests.

"Our signature move is not going to be called 'the Moose'! What would that even look like?!"

The four of them continue to bicker about appropriate lift names and achievements until they reach their rooms.

She and Scott are alone when he says, "It's probably a good thing we're not going to the final anyway, seeing what happened last year."

She grimaces as those feelings of guilt come back to haunt her.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, but we're going to have to talk about it at some stage. We can't keep avoiding... everything." He still looks at her like she's something precious.

"I know we can't but... I don't even know how to talk about it." She closes her eyes. "It was the worst thing I've ever done."

She feels his fingers ghost comfortingly down her arm, but when she opens her eyes he's walking away.

She should tell him that at the same time it was one of the best things she's ever done. She should tell him she loves him. She should tell him a lot of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Catch me crying in the club because all those records Mark talks about are ones Tessa and Scott broke themselves when they came back.


	6. Chapter 6

_**February 2021** _

"Is it just me or is this getting out of hand?" Scott wonders.

"No! They need more passion!" Tanya exclaims.

Tessa is firmly on Team Scott. If Sophie and Mark's tango short dance becomes any more passionate she's sure she will be banned from coaching. She thinks she just saw him make some biting gesture at her ear and Sophie definitely just ran her nails down his back in a very unSophie-like manner and ohmygod she's just turned eighteen and he's nineteen and they're going to Worlds next month, JUNIOR Worlds, and the entire figure skating community is going to think that Tessa Virtue is choreographing pornography on ice. She didn't choreograph this! Well, yes, she did, but they've taken it to some new level unbefitting of teenaged dance partners. Who do they think they are, Virtue and Moir?

She'd been worried that their parents were going to lodge a complaint against her after seeing the dance at Nationals, but they hadn't said anything. It's worse now. They're rehearsing it alone because Tessa doesn't want the younger junior teams getting any ideas. Sophie's mom might have an inkling of what's going on. Tessa had this odd conversation with her last week about how Sophie's practice wardrobe was featuring a lot more exposed backs and low-cut tops than before. She still didn't know if Mrs Vaughn was celebrating that Sophie was finally confident in herself after all the insecurities about her body changing or if that had been the woman's way of telling her to have a sex talk with her daughter ASAP.

It's nearly over, she thinks as the closing section of the music starts. They can't do anything too shocking now. They go through the familiar final movements of Sophie turning away and Mark grabbing her and bringing her close to him and staring intently into each other's eyes and then kissing. Wait.

"That, that's not meant to happen," she stammers.

"No, no, it's not," Scott croaks.

 

He's glad she sent the younger ones away. This is not chaste kissing, this kissing is... he doesn't want to think about it. It's like watching your little brother make out with your little sister except that they aren't related. They're still doing it. Will they ever stop?

"Of course it's meant to happen. It's about time," Tanya says contentedly. "I must go, you two can go have a nice talk with them."

"You can't leave us to deal with it," he hisses. "You're the one with all the experience, you've been coaching since the dawn of time."

Tessa elbows him to remind him not to wake the dragon.

Tanya is wearing that faux-innocent expression, the one she had on when she "forgot" that she had arranged for both him and Tessa to babysit her grandchildren. "I don't have any experience with having feelings for your dance partner. I don't know who would... I married one of my ice dance competitors so I'm of no use here!"  
She takes off in a cloud of perfume.

"She married someone she competed against?"

Tessa gets all starry-eyed. "It was years later. It's an epic love story, has she not told you about it? She was..."

He turns her around so that she's looking at what's happening on the ice. "Tess, now is not the time for storytelling. We have more pressing concerns."

"Will we just wait here until it ends?"

"We would be here all day." This is getting ridiculous. Don't they need air?

He takes Tessa's hand as they make their way towards the enjoined pair of ice dancers. It's actually worse up close. Tessa coughs delicately. There is no reaction. He scoops up some shards of ice and throws the them over the heads of Sophie and Mark. They jump apart.

"These choreographic additions are getting a bit much," Tessa says finally after they've watched Sophie and Mark squirm and get progressively redder.

"That, that's what you want to talk about? Not the stuff that happened after the dancing?" Sophie questions.

"I'm just getting around to that." Tessa is silent for a few moments. She looks at him helplessly, "Scott?"

He sighs, he knew he would have to be the one to crush young dreams. "I think it's great that you two have this strong connection. I know what it's like to be... confused about where the boundaries are between dance partner and friend and... something more. You're both really young and you have a fantastic career ahead of you. Maybe now isn't the right time for this to happen, maybe you should wait for later."

Mark and Sophie are avoiding each other's gaze. Scott turns to Tessa in the hope that she will add something useful.

"Yes, you are so young and this would change things. It would affect your skating, it would affect everything." She bites her lip. "But maybe that's okay. Maybe now is the time. Maybe you should just go for it now because if you wait, well, that's all you'll be doing. Waiting. Waiting for something and not making it happen, not talking about it. Or, or letting something happen that shouldn't and then having that change everything and not knowing what to do next. Until all of a sudden everyone you know is getting married and you're just sitting there looking after other people's kids and spending your free time watching Russian soaps and drinking too much wine with a woman in her seventies!"

They've all just been staring at her as her words have been coming out thick and fast, getting progressively quicker and louder until she's gasping for air at the end of her speech.

She takes a breath and says slowly and softly, "Don't just let this go if it's what you want. Maybe you won't get this chance again. Don't leave it too late."

"It's never too late." Scott stares at her intensely.

"We're, uh, going to go now…," Mark announces awkwardly. They skate away.

Tessa raises her eyes to meet his, "We need to talk."

 

Sophie and Mark are greeted by a very excited Tanya when they get to the hallway.

She claps enthusiastically. "What a beautiful performance! So convincing! You might almost think you two were attracted to each other!"

Sophie shuffles uncomfortably and she notices Mark run his hand through his hair which he does when he gets nervous. He has such great hair, and she now knows it feels just as good having taken full advantage of her opportunity to touch it. Tanya is looking at them like she expects a response.

"Well, you know, we're ice dancers, used to acting," she babbles.

"I was the third munchkin to the left in the Ilderton Music and Drama Society's production of _The Wizard of Oz_ when I was a younger. It was a very demanding role." He would have been such an adorable child.

Tanya looks at them sceptically. "Mmhmm... To the important part, what did they say?"

"Scott told us we should wait and then Tessa freaked out about how waiting was bad and we'd end up alone and we should just go for it. She said we shouldn't leave it too late and Scott was all 'it's never too late' and it got really intense." She had been concerned that Scott was going to bore a hole into Tessa the way he was staring at her.

"I thought it would be the other way around. I've known he's been in love with her for as long as I can remember. I guessed he'd be all for partners getting together." Mark sounds rueful.

"Did you think that your little show was the only part of my plan? I have been priming Tessa's reaction for weeks." Tanya's laugh has a touch of the evil dictator to it. "First, I had wedding magazines sent to her apartment. Then I got her brothers to keep asking her to look after their children. Yesterday, I had Kaitlyn and Andrew have lunch with her and Scott, with the baby there too of course. Yes, it is my most devious and successful plan since I seduced my Ilia so that I would beat him at Europeans."

"But you didn't beat him." Sophie is well versed on the Tatiana Dementieva life story.

"No, but I did marry him." Tanya shrugs.

"Years later," Sophie is beginning to worry about the plan's outcome.

"It was still a success! The sex was great."

Sophie gags and she can hear a weird strangled noise coming from Mark's throat. "It's okay. Just go to a happy place," she tells him out of the corner of her mouth.

Tanya snorts. "Please, as if that's not all you're thinking about during that short dance." She sweeps away.

"Did, did she just say that all we think about during our tango is her and her husband..." Mark's face hasn't lost its horrified look.

"No, she meant that all we think about is you and me..." She is not finishing that sentence.

"Oh. Right... Crazy day, huh? I hope this plan works out."

"Me too! They're meant to be together. Also, if it doesn't, we'll just have kissed for ages for no reason!" She needs to work on her fake laugh.

"At least it wasn't terrible, was it?" He seems genuinely concerned, as if he's unaware that the kiss was most obviously the best kiss of her, or anyone's, life.

"It was the opposite of terrible," she assures him.

"Good, or is that bad? I mean... It's like Scott was talking about..."

"We don't want to do anything to mess up our partnership," she supplies.

"Yeah." He looks as happy about this as she feels. "So, see you tomorrow, partner." He awkwardly punches her arm.

They both turn on their heels only to have to turn again, bumping into each other in the process, when they remember that their respective changing rooms are in the opposite direction.

She hates her life.

 

Mark considers just how much he hates his life as he takes an ice-cold shower and gets changed before going home. The world is so unjust. You notice just how incredible a girl is but nothing can happen because you're competing against her. Then you start skating together and she's even more special than you thought, but still nothing can happen. He had hoped that kissing her would make things easier, get it out of his system. He was wrong.

He almost knocks Sophie over on exiting the main door, but he catches her before she falls. He holds her close to him for longer than is strictly necessary. They disentangle themselves reluctantly.

"It's cold, you shouldn't be waiting out here. Do you want me to drop you home?" Great idea, being in a confined space won't be difficult at all.

"No, it's fine. Jack is coming to pick me up. I didn't want to wait inside because I don't know what Tessa and Scott are going to be like after everything so I'm out here, in the cold." She babbles when she gets nervous. Her lips are so red.

He takes her hands in his instinctively, "They're freezing, you should be wearing gloves."

"They're better now." She's staring intently at their linked hands and he wonders if she's thinking the same thing he is.

"We fit."

"Perfectly." She sighs, "I don't know if this makes me a terrible person, but sometimes I think that we were meant to skate together."

"You're not a terrible person. Although, if you are, I am too because I've been thinking the exact same thing."

"At least we could go to hell together." It sounds like a very inviting proposition.

"Tessa is making it seem like we're going there anyway the way she talks about the short dance."

"Think of the children!" Sophie mimics.

"It would be worth it," he says recklessly. They don't usually talk about these things.

"Definitely," she smiles at him widely, but then the smile disappears. "Will all the ignoring and the avoiding and the waiting be worth it?"

The sensible part of him tells him that he could think of the skating, think of the results, but most of him thinks this sensible part is really stupid. "Scott is great, but I'm wondering if we should take his advice on this. I don't want to end up in my thirties still pining over my dance partner and having two teenagers try and put us together."

"Maybe Tessa was right. Maybe we should just go for it."

"Just go for it," he repeats as he takes in the sight of her looking so hopeful and so beautiful.

And they do. They kiss and it's as jaw-droppingly good as the first time. He no longer feels the cold because every part of him is on fire. His heart feels like it's going to burst out of his chest and Sophie's is beating a matching rhythm. He never wants this to end.

They're interrupted by some sustained and aggressive beeping. "That's my brother," Sophie groans.

"He's going to kill me. He had this big talk with me about how I wasn't to mess with you or ever have an impure thought." The contract had been null and void from the beginning.

She hits him lightly, "Didn't I have any say in this?"

"It wasn't like we were being sexist and discussing your ownership or anything. He just wanted to make sure I was good enough to dance with you."

"I can make my own decisions." She kisses him and he's fairly certain he knows what her decision is in this instance.

The beeping starts again. "I should go. We need to talk about all this so I'll ring you when I get home. It will be easier than in person because I won't be distracted by all..." she blushes and makes a circular hand movement in his general direction, "this."

"I'm looking forward to this talk," he calls out as she leaves. She twirls around to give him the most dazzling smile.

He loves his life.

 

"We need to talk."

Scott nods. Neither of them say anything.

Tessa throws her arms around him and they adopt the familiar position which always calmed her before competitions. She calms down as their breathing matches and their heart rates synch.

"I'm sorry about contradicting all your advice to Sophie and Mark and the whole freaking out nature of that speech."

"You made some excellent points. I don't want them to end up like..."

"Us," she finishes.

"Yeah. Talking was always the hard part wasn't it?"

"A lot of the time we didn't even need to talk. We just danced and that took care of it."

"Dancing took care of a lot of things. We could be together on the ice." There's something freeing about finally saying the unsayables.

"Maybe we should dance now. Dance, and tell each other all the things we haven't told each other."

He begins to waltz her around the silent rink, "Where should we start?"

"At the beginning. The first time we skated together I thought you were too much for me to handle. You overwhelmed me. You still do."

"I thought you were the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and that you were much too good for me. You're still the most beautiful woman, but I have come to a different conclusion on the too good for me part."

"Good, because that ridiculous," she sniffs. "What next... Oh, when you got your first girlfriend I cried myself to sleep for about a week."

"Tessa, the relationship didn't even last that long." If he had known... He continues the truth-telling exercise. "When we sat together for a while in Chemistry I copied your test answers."

"I figured as much. You kept looking over my shoulder so it was either that or you were staring down my top."

"You underestimate my ability to multitask, I was doing both."

She hits him lightly on the shoulder, but she doesn't look mad. "I used to choose my clothes based on whether you'd like them. I did that for quite a while actually."

"Remember when you bought two dresses for the winter formal and you wanted me to tell you which one you looked hottest in because you were going with that idiot basketball player? Well, I lied. The red one was sexier but I didn't want him to see you in it, or me to see you with him in it, I'm not sure. Anyway, I was an asshole."

"Yes, you were! I still have that dress, I wore it to some skating event a few years later."

"I know you did. Bryce Davison was hitting on you and then I punched him."

"I thought that was over Jessica!"

"Not so much."

"When I was dating Fedor -," Scott grimaces automatically, "- he started wearing the same aftershave you were using and it made me really uncomfortable because he smelled like you, but he wasn't you, and it was just very weird. So, I accidentally-on-purpose broke the bottle and then accidentally-on-purpose bought him a different one as a replacement."

"When you two broke up I accidentally-on-purpose waged a war of terror on him. It was pretty casual. I just broke into his apartment and hid eggs there to rot, messed around with his car, made an anonymous report to the police that he was doing drugs..."

"Scott, he could have been deported! Marina would have killed you if she had found out."

"Speaking of Marina, she may not have choreographed a significant proportion of the times I felt you up when we were dancing." She had always been totally on board with it though.

"Oh really? Well, accidental lip brushes? Not a thing. The first one was but after that I was definitely going for it."

He laughs and they continue to dance around the rink as their revelations move towards the present.

"I should have told you that I wanted you to coach with me before you left for law school. I didn't want you to miss out on anything because of me, but you should have known."

"It probably all turned out for the best. If you had I wouldn't have ended up coaching here and meeting Tanya, and Sophie and Jack. I learned a lot about myself during law school. When Cary - don't make that face! I think you've left out that you hate everyone I've ever dated!"

"That's not true. I still get along great with Jake, that guy you dated from your psych class. I see him at Leafs games."

"That's because you knew he was gay before I did, or even he did! Back to what I was saying," she takes a deep breath, "Cary started talking about marriage and I realised that the only man I'd ever thought about marrying was you."

"I went ring shopping with Andrew before he proposed to Kaitlyn and every ring that I liked I imagined putting it on your finger. Even though I was with..."

"Heather." He nods. "So, we've arrived at the hard part."

"I know what you mean when you said that it was the worst thing you've ever done. I should have stopped it somehow. It wasn't just terrible because I was unfaithful to Heather, I betrayed us too. The first time we kissed, the first time we slept together... they shouldn't have been like that. I was going to break up with her anyway, if it had never happened... I know we wouldn't be like this, I know we would be together."

"It was the worst thing I've done, that's true, but it's not the full truth. In a lot of ways it was the most perfect night of my life. You, me, Nice, the stars, champagne... You couldn't have stopped it and I wouldn't have let you. No matter how much regret or guilt I feel, I know that if we went back there I would do the same thing every time."

They've stopped dancing and a piece of her hair has fallen out of her bun so he pushes it behind her ear.

She closes her eyes. "Sometimes I think I'm just using the guilt as an excuse. What we did was wrong, but I don't think that means we shouldn't be together. I've always been terrified of what would happen if I just gave in and let it happen. I was worried that it would consume me. But now I think that I'm strong enough for anything. I've been reading those pointed emails with all the love quotes that Tanya sends about how love is a leap of faith and..." She opens her eyes. "I think I'm ready."

"I was scared for so long. Scared that I wasn't good enough for you, scared that I would hold you back. But we're not as different as people make us out to be. This is where we're meant to be, here coaching Sophie and Mark and all the others. I need you and you need me."

"We're meant to be together," she says simply looking at their matching hands.

"It's not too late, if that's what you want."

She answers him with a kiss. It's both too much and not enough. It's as if all that exists in the world is Scott and his lips on hers, his hands in her hair, and their bodies so close that she can't tell his heartbeat from hers.

He breaks off the kiss, "I forgot something."

Tessa looks decidedly unimpressed. "We've covered the talking part. I really think the kissing part of our relationship has been much more seriously neglected."

"It's important. I love you."

She full on rolls her eyes at this declaration. "That was something we were never afraid to tell each other. Back to the kissing."

"I need to make it obvious. I love you completely and utterly unplatonically."

She giggles. "That's not a word."

It's his turn to roll his eyes.

"Don't worry, it doesn't change the way I feel about you. I love you completely and utterly unplatonically too."

He lifts her up and kisses her. Tessa is right, they really have neglected this side of their partnership and that must be remedied.

 

The morning after the day before Mark quite literally sweeps Sophie off her feet. He scoops her up and twirls her around before setting her back down and kissing her.

"Hi," he whispers.

"Hi," she smiles back. She extricates herself from his arms so that she can form coherent sentences. "Have you thought about what we should say to Tessa and Scott?"

He has planned this carefully. "We'll tell them that we considered both their opinions and we agree with Tessa. We've discussed all the ways this will impact our partnership and we're prepared to deal with that. There's nothing to worry about. They're probably all loved-up anyway. Everything is going to go fine."

Tessa rushes past them, clearly in tears.

"We can't tell them," Sophie and Mark say simultaneously.

"Things mustn't have worked out yesterday... And now they have to work together." He was so sure they would finally have got it together.

Sophie look absolutely grief-stricken. "Poor Tessa... I can't believe... We'll just have to pretend like nothing's going on between us."

"We can't make life any harder for them." They make their way into the rink to wait for their coaches.

 

Scott is thinking that every work day should start with Tessa sweeping into his office and kissing him when he realises that she's been crying.

"Tessa, what happened? Is everything okay?"

"Everything is great. The world is a wonderful place," she half-trills, half-sobs.

He had woken up thinking the same thing, but it hadn't reduced him to tears.

"I just got off the phone with Kaitlyn," she explains, "and I was telling her about us. She was so excited and then she told me that she had some good news too. They're having another baby!"

"Wow, that's great. Those kids are going to be really close in age." A look of horror crosses his face. "Are they trying to produce a sibling dance team?" He's going to have to reconsider this friendship.

"No, definitely not." Tessa is very certain about this and why is she blushing?

"How are you so sure?"

"Just something she said." Tessa is not particularly skilled at fake nonchalance.

He crosses his arms and looks at her expectantly.

"Okay," she groans, "so she might have told me that she wants us to start having babies soon so that our kids can partner theirs, but I told her we were taking things slowly!"

"You don't want to get her hopes up. Their kids might be too tall for ours," he says matter-of-factly.

"That was my first reaction," she admits.

"I think we'd be okay if we had a daughter and they had a son, but I don't know about the other way around." He clears his throat, he probably shouldn't be thinking about this in too much detail.

"We should go coach this generation of Canadian ice dancers before thinking about the next one."

They leave his office and he puts his arm around her. "Do you think Sophie and Mark are together now?"

"I hope so," she smiles before turning serious. "But if they're not we can't tell them that we are."

"Why not? We'll be like a beacon of hope for all ice dance partners who put off dating."

"Maybe after a while, but if they've decided not to date their little hearts are broken! The last thing they need to see is their coaches all over each other."

Before Scott has a chance to raise the important point that they haven't really been all over each other yet Tessa's phone rings.

"It's Tanya so I had better take it. You go on in."

 

Mark drops Sophie's hand on seeing Scott enter the rink alone. "They're not even coming in together?! This is bad, this is really bad."

Scott gestures to his students to join him at the boards. "So, did you two, um, talk about what happened yesterday?"

"Yeah..." Mark looks nervous, is that good or bad? "We decided that it would be best if we didn't take things any further."

"We have to think about our skating," Sophie adds.

"If that's what's best for you... It can be complicated to date someone who you work so closely with." That was not the right thing to say. Sophie now looks as if she's about to cry.

"Do you need a minute or?"

"No, we're here to skate," she gulps.

"Okay. Just continue warming up until Tessa comes in."

Scott just shakes his head at her when she joins him at the boards. She can't help starting to sob, she's blaming it on the fact that baby news always makes her emotional. Scott goes to put his arm around her but she avoids him.

"We're not together either, remember?"

 

"Oh my God, she just started crying and she won't even let him touch her! This is terrible!" Sophie is tearing up too.

He reaches out to hug her but she shakes her head.

"We're not together, remember?

 

_**March 2021** _

"This is getting ridiculous," Scott announces. "I know I'm irresistible, but hooking up in the cleaning supply closet at lunchtime? It's just not classy, Tessa."

"Oh, this was my idea, was it? I would have been perfectly happy to finish my paperwork but oh no, 'Tessa, I need you.', 'Tessa, I want you.', 'Tessa, it's been too long.'. The last one is strange because I have a distinct memory of us in my shower this morning."

"You jumped up pretty fast when I suggested it. The way you were looking at me over that desk... You used to be a lawyer, you should know what constitutes a charge of indecency."

The best way to shut him up is to kiss him so she does just that.

He breaks off the kiss because he needs to place his full attention on unbuttoning her shirt. "Why do you wear clothes that are so hard to remove?"

"As a deterrent to unsafe workplace activities. Let me do it..."

"No," he says stubbornly, "I can do it."

She laughs, and kisses the top of his head which is bent over in deep concentration. "You make me very happy."

"Well, I'm practically done so I'm about to make you even happier."

Her laughter turns into something of a shriek when a mass of teenaged ice dancers joined at the lips and with hands all over the place come twirling in. They join in with the shrieking.

"What... what kind of behaviour is this?" Scott splutters. He's standing in front of her as she buttons her blouse.

"What kind of behaviour is this?! What kind of behaviour is that?" Sophie rejoins.

"It's... We... How long has this been going on?"

"Since that day we kissed on the ice. How long have you two been together?" Mark asks. "Please tell me you two are actually together."

"No, I was just helping Tessa remove a coffee stain... Of course we're together."

"We've been together since then too," Tessa smiles.

"But why didn't you tell us?" Sophie looks disappointed.

"You said you'd decided against dating! I didn't want to make things harder for you."

"We only said that because we thought you two hadn't seen sense! You were so upset the next morning."

"I wasn't upset until I found out about you two! So, you were just pretending not to be together so I wouldn't be more hurt?"

"And you were doing the same thing?" Sophie clasps her hands together.

Tessa nods and throws her arms around her. Scott pats Mark manfully on the shoulder before giving in and hugging it out.

Tanya's voice is heard through the door. "I'm coming in, I don't know who is in there but I know that you have Worlds in a week and you should be working."

She opens the door. "This is not what I was expecting. Well, at least you all know about each other now and can stop hiding out in here. It's such a tacky location for an assignation."

Sophie is about to protest and remind Tanya of how she locked her and Mark in here, but Tessa speaks first.

"You knew about all of us?"

"Of course I did. My master plan was foolproof. It was obvious, you were chirpy in the mornings, Scott was singing, Sophie and Mark's short dance got even filthier..."

"I can't believe we didn't put that together," Tessa shakes her head.

"In fairness, our dances were always much worse," Scott reminds her.

"We were seniors! It's inappropriate for juniors!" She turns to look at Sophie and Mark, "You're going to have to tone it down before Scott and I are arrested or the judges mark you badly."

 

It turns out that ice dancing judges are supportive of junior ice dancers with mature tango performances. As Mark and Sophie wait to take the ice for their free dance they sit in first place after the short.

Tessa smiles proudly at them. "Just enjoy it. Forget about everything and just live in the moment."

"Look at each other, be together, and nothing else will matter," Scott intones calmly.

"Representing Canada, Sophie Vaughn and Mark Truman!" The announcer's voice booms through the arena.

Mark kisses Sophie's cheek and they take off hand in hand.

Tessa nestles into Scott's side. He presses a quick kiss to the top of her head.

"I have a good feeling about this," she murmurs into his shoulder.

"Me too. There's something special about tonight."

She agrees. Maybe it's the certainty she has that even if they don't win this time, they will next year. Maybe it's the way Mark and Sophie look at each other, just like she and Scott did. She doesn't know if they will always stay together romantically, at least while they're competing, but she's confident that they won't stop skating together. How could they, when they have found their perfect partner?

Maybe that is what is so special about tonight. The feeling that she is in exactly the right place with exactly the right person. Partners, at last, in everything.

Music fills the rink.

Their story is just beginning.


End file.
